Gravitas LIVE | Chinese "spy ship" in Sri Lanka | Which Indian assets are potential targets? | WION

[Applause] [Music] good evening and welcome to gravitas [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] today a chinese ship docked in sri lanka and immediately sailed into headlines it came with a banner that read hello sri lanka it docked in a port that is controversial and has become a textbook example of the perils of chinese debt we're talking about the hambun tota port built by chinese money that sri lanka could not repay so the port has been leased to china for 99 years sri lanka resisted the arrival of this chinese ship a because it is a spy vessel and b because india expressed serious security concerns but china had its way today it received a grand welcome in sri lanka colombo is calling it a peace mission now but nobody is buying that line least of all india which has put its forces on standby tonight on gravitas we'll tell you all about the ship why it poses a threat which indian assets could be potential targets and why sri lanka had to do a u-turn to accommodate china oh that's the chinese ship everyone is talking about it's called the yuan wong five is it a research vessel or a giant snooping device these questions are back in focus because colombo has made a u-turn last week sri lanka refused to let the chinese ship dock today it rolled out the red carpet for the very same ship and india has reason to be worried is china spying on india from sri lankan port what is india's mechanism for defense and response this is our cover story tonight this is a ship we've been tracking for a while and telling you about the yuan wong five it got a grand welcome in sri lanka today at the hambantota port just look at the size it's a massive ship 222 meters long about 25 meters wide it has at least four satellites and multiple antennas does this look like a research vessel to you we have our doubts so does sri lanka earlier the ship was supposed to reach on the 11th of august sri lanka blocked it then china pulled some strings met with lankan officials in colombo got the required permissions and on saturday the ship got a green light to dock remember all of this happened despite india's strong opposition india expressed serious security concerns colombo looked the other way listen to what a lawmaker said today he was representing sri lanka's president ronald vikram singh at the ceremony to welcome the ship young one five has reached sri lanka about the report and there had been a small controversy it's a peace mission he says what does that even mean earlier they said it was a research mission now colombo says it's a peace mission no research the ship will replenish its supplies and leave our correspondent dasonia tauda has been tracking the story in colombo she sent us this report sri lankan government deferred its entry a few weeks ago nevertheless has now allowed for this military vessel to be docked at the hamanto report purely for replenishment activities also sri lanka's ministry of defense has made it very clear that they had requested the chinese military vessel to prevent from any and all research activities during its week-long stay here at the hambato court so sri lanka told china to drop the research plan replenish supplies on the ship and leave and china has apparently agreed its ambassador to sri lanka was at the humbantota port today and he did not miss the opportunity to take a dig at india listen to this now you have experienced some different rough weather this time on the indian ocean the protocol of vyam15hamantota finally comes through it manifests not only your courage tenacity and invincibility but also the deep rooted unfading and enduring friendship between our two countries the chinese ambassador wanted to make sure that his message was heard so he came with a translator where does this episode leave india india has security concerns related to the ship and these are legitimate concerns experts call the yuan guang five a spy ship and for good reason let me tell you more about the ship first first of all what is yuan wong this is a generic name for a fleet of chinese ships they have about seven or eight of them and this particular ship the one that's docked at sri lanka's humbantota port is ship number five hence the name yuan wong five now let me tell you what the ship can do it has a lot of equipment on board and i have a list there are optical laser passive radio and radar devices what are the applications what do they do they can monitor three kinds of launches satellite rocket and intercontinental ballistic missiles there are distinct military applications of these tools the yuan wong ships can drag can in fact track ballistic missile trajectories they can monitor satellite and space vehicle launches and that's what makes these ships a critical part of china's missile and space programs but these ships can do a lot more than that they can also gather what's called technical intelligence what is technical intelligence in the simplest of terms it is information that is useful for the chinese military it was supposed to be a research trip where does the military come in it is the chinese military or the pla that operates these ships the u.s defense department says these ships belong to the pla strategic support force what is the role of the strategic support force this is a special unit of the chinese military it is like a theater command it's a central unit for space cyber electronic information communications and psychological warfare missions of the chinese military and all of what i've just said is a matter of record there is no denying the fact that the yuan wong represents the chinese military it poses a threat a challenge to india this vessel can be used to spy on multiple strategic assets in india the range of the ship is up to 750 kilometers 750 kilometers the yuan wong 5 is currently in hamburg sri lanka this is the location guess which indian targets fall in the 750 kilometer radius the isro satellite base in sriharikota the kalapaka atomic power plant in tamilnadu and the kurankulam nuclear power plant all of these fall in southern india the state of odisha also falls in the potential target zone it has the integrated test range now this is a facility where india conduct india tests ballistic missiles so the chinese vessel can track launches in india what else is on beijing's radar at least three other ports and assets of the indian navy so basically a lot of indian assets could be exposed to china what is new delhi doing to mitigate or counter this threat the indian navy is believed to be keeping a close eye on the chinese ship its activities will be monitored also india is developing closer ties with the sri lankan navy a few days ago the vice chief of the indian navy was in colombo this was a two day visit then yesterday india handed over a surveillance aircraft to sri lanka again the indian navy had a key role to play here the surveillance aircraft came from the inventory of the indian navy the sri lankan navy and the air force were trained by india on this plane so there is growing synergy between the two navies also in the political leadership india and sri lanka deepening ties but clearly that's not enough to counter the chinese influence effectively sri lanka's decision is snubbed to india i would say that's a simplistic assessment because try to look at this from sri lanka's point of view it must keep both india and china in good humor it needs a bailout from the imf the international monetary fund sri lanka needs that money urgently and that will not happen until china restructures its loans to sri lanka so colombo doesn't really have a lot of diplomatic wiggle room and india has no option but to slowly wean its neighbors away from china in the meantime indian forces must be ready to shield india's assets from the chinese [Music] and for every offensive you need weapons you must either make your own arms or import them which brings us to the global defense industry every player in this market uses the same catchphrase combat proven i've got some examples for you here's the french firm dassault promoting its rafal jets combat proven they say lockheed martin with the f-35s again combat proven every military seller wants to get one point across that their product has seen combat but not russia russia's defense industry is dealing with a different issue they're the second largest exporter in the world only behind the united states almost 20 percent of global exports are done by russia nobody doubts that their weapons have seen action the evidence is clear in ukraine russia's problem is different its effectiveness how lethal are their weapon systems the war itself is not a good advertisement remember it was called a special military operation and how many special military operations last for six months so many experts are questioning russia's place in the defense market how good are their weapons and can they be delivered amid a raging war on monday president vladimir putin addressed this issue he was attending a weapons expo outside moscow putin says russia is ready to arm its allies russia sincerely cherishes historically strong friendly truly trusting ties with the states of latin america asia and africa it is ready to offer its allies and partners the most modern types of weapons from small arms to armored vehicles and artillery combat aviation and unmanned aerial vehicles and that's not all putin claims russian weapons are far superior to western one years perhaps decades ahead of them that's what putin says but the problem is there is no ground evidence reports say russian missiles have only a 40 success rate so 60 of their strikes are off target now most of these reports are western ones but as they say there is no smoke without fire the fact is six months later russia has yet to defeat ukraine so naturally there will be questions can russia remain a reliable military supplier some of the reports are not encouraging for example the delivery of s 400 missiles to india the second shipment was supposed to arrive in the month of may but so far there is no news some simulators and spare parts have arrived but the missiles themselves no trace another example is a sukhoi checkmate it is a fifth generation fighter jet it was supposed to be russia's answer to america's f-35 production was scheduled to begin in 2025 but after this war it has been pushed back the new target is 2027. so pretending that everything is all right just won't cut it which is why president putin himself addressed this issue and we can think of three reasons why number one of course the money russia earns 15 billion dollars from selling weapons that money is crucial right now it can be used to fund the operations in ukraine russia needs the money reason number two is the political power of the military industrial complex same story as the u.s the defense industry employs almost 3 million people that's twenty percent of all manufacturing jobs two point seven percent of the total workforce russia prides itself as a military superpower their economy you know is on the slide their soft power is waning so the military is sort of like their last straw and finally reason number three a hint a hit to foreign relations putin has used weapons to forge close bilateral relations in fact i have some numbers for you 23 of russia's defense exports go to india 18 to china 15 to algeria 12 to egypt and 6 to vietnam all these relations are built around weapons you take that out and things will collapse or at least they lose momentum these countries will look elsewhere for defense trade and if that happens what options will russia have they don't have a big checkbook like china or the us they don't have resources to sell other than gas they don't have historic ties outside central asia so putin's allies allies could slip away from him and the president knows all of this after all he's a shrewd statesman take his entry into the syrian war in 2015 when vladimir putin interfered in syria he knew exactly how it would benefit him in fact i have a quote from 2017. this is what vladimir putin said he was talking about russia's increasing arms trade this is largely a result of the more effective use of our weapons in real combat conditions including the anti-terrorist operation in syria this opportunity for gaining a firmer foothold on the world market of our men should not be missed that's what putin said and he was right syria was a great advertisement for russian weapons they turned the tide of the war but in ukraine it's the opposite unless russia scores a few decisive victories experts will question their weapons and right now things are heading in the opposite direction looks like ukraine is on the counter-attack let me show you what happened earlier today two separate explosions were reported in crimea one targeted a transformer substation the other hit an ammunition depot both in a northern district of russian occupied crimea now these are not isolated incidents just last week explosions ripped across a russian air base in western crimea russia called it an accident but all evidence pointed to ukrainian special forces what about today's attack was it also carried out by ukraine well this time russia is not calling it an accident they're blaming saboteurs now we see official reports from the defense ministry the course of today's incident was sabotage we already understand what is happening we have evacuated more than three thousand people from the settlements around zhancorn district couple of points to note here first russia is admitting that there could be anti-russian elements in crimea which is quite contrary to how how they market the region and secondly they're indirectly blaming ukraine for what happened during last week's attack remember that was not the case russia refused to admit that their their air base was attacked but this time their position has changed what about ukraine their officials are still playing cloak and dagger listen to this the enemy does not know how to use fire safety measures but it definitely makes us all happy not only the military but also the whole of ukraine zhangkoi and other military airfield where the enemy concentrated not only the helicopters i mentioned but also other equipment there and because of damage judging by the video available in open sources we see the detonation of ammunition these are rockets that explode and fly in different directions there were more mixed signals from ukraine take a look at this post by ukraine's presidential advisor this is what it says crimea occupied by russians is about warehouse explosions and high risk of death for invaders and thieves demilitarization in action so he's calling it demilitarization these explosions are part of the war's next phase a southern counter offensive by ukraine that target is said to be here son now hairston was a major economic hub before the war it is also the only regional capital taken by russia now ukraine is planning to retake it their army is blowing up bridges around kerason the plan is to isolate the russian occupying forces to cut off their supplies kiev is also asking the remaining residents to leave the city fewer residents fewer casualties but what explains the timing of this counter-attack why are they doing it now for starters ukraine fears that russia is looking to formally annex kerason to hold a referendum first and then officially add kereson to russian territory so ukraine is running out of time to respond it's now or never for them secondly new western weapons have arrived in ukraine including the high mars rockets these weapons have given kiev some confidence they're hoping to make some gains before winter sets it not far away people are preparing for a different kind of winter a nuclear winter at the center of these spheres is the zaparizia nuclear plant the largest one in europe and right now perhaps also the most dangerous place in europe the plant is still run by ukrainian staff but it is guarded by russian soldiers so as expected there's a lot of tension and since the month of march the nuclear plant has been hit multiple times on the 5th of august it was shell twice then again on august 6th 7th and 11th both sides blame each other for these attacks russia claims that ukraine is shelling the nuclear plant ukraine claims russia is firing at the plant themselves either way it's a nuclear disaster waiting to happen the reactor itself could be safe it is protected by thick concrete walls but the cooling systems could be under threat and if that happens it could be another fukushima what is the world community doing about this the united nations is seeking access to the plant they want to inspect the reactors to make sure things are fine both ukraine and russia agree in principle but they have set some conditions russia says the u.n mission cannot travel to zaparizia from kiev why apparently because they will have to travel through the front line meanwhile ukraine says russia must withdraw completely from the plant a full demilitarization but we need to move on from discussions and calls for new tough sanctions against russia against rosatom and the entire nuclear industry of the terrorist state all russian forces must immediately withdraw from the station and neighboring areas without any conditions both ukraine and russia are playing with fire just think about it a nuclear plant is dangerous enough in peace time imagine fighting a war near it one miscalculation could result in a catastrophe some neighboring countries already preparing for it moldova for instance they've imported one million iodine pills now these pills can basically cancel out the radiation protect you in case of a nuclear disaster but what if it's not a disaster what if it is a nuclear attack well in that case pills will not be of much help scientists at the rutgers university have mapped out the impact of a nuclear attack if russia and the us wage a nuclear war five billion people could die quick side note our current world population is 7.7 billion five billion could die so almost 65 of the world population could die if there is an attack like this the immediate reason would be the suit nuclear strikes would trigger firestorms that would pollute the air this this pollution would wipe out five billion people the remaining population would likely starve to death the same study found that food production would fall 90 percent of the u.s and russia fight a nuclear war seven percent of india and pakistan wage a nuclear war simply put humanity would be thrown back to the stone ages all our scientific progress all our economic achievements everything would be threatened by a nuclear war like every nuclear power keeps saying there would be no winners on to china now where beijing is desperately trying to ignite another conflict of war over taiwan yesterday the chinese military dispatched more warplanes and ships it was in response to another american delegation visiting taiwan and today beijing announced sanctions on seven taiwanese citizens these are lawmakers and government officials among them is taiwan's ambassador to the u.s seau by him also the secretary general of taiwan's national security council wellington coup china calls them dangerous separatists the sanctions were announced in a broadcast by the chinese state mouthpiece cctv a spokesperson of the taiwan work office of the communist party of china central committee on tuesday announced sanctions on the listed taiwan independence diehards a spokesperson said that actions seeking taiwan independence constitute the biggest obstacle to china's reunification and a grave danger to the national rejuvenation what do these sanctions entail officials from taiwan will not be able to travel to china anymore companies linked to these officials will find it hard to operate in china and that's all so basically the sanctions are mostly symbolic but they feed a narrative in china remember china sees taiwan as a breakaway province it threatens to use force to retake taiwan so for beijing this crisis is an opportunity and xi jinping is leveraging it he is painting these american visits as a challenge to china's sovereignty he has mobilized the entire state machinery to push this narrative every day beijing threatens democratically elected leaders of taiwan listen to the latest china has taken form measures to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity which will be felt by the separatist forces of taiwan independence china's sovereignty is under threat taiwanese leaders are separatists and the constant vows to crush taiwan china is not deviating from its message but why the constant reminders is there another reason behind china's military response is the threat to take taiwan by force a way to distract from the problems at home because there are a lot of problems the wuhan virus refuses to go away zero covet notwithstanding the chinese economy is in crisis and now they have to deal with a drought all of this is threatening the communist party's grip on power take the bohan virus for instance the cases continue to rise zero corbid has had zero success i want to show you some pictures they're from shanghai an ikea store in shanghai do you know what's happening here health officials tried to lock the store with choppers inside why because they suspected they were co with patients in the store go with positive patients so they locked up everyone the shoppers tried to escape they tried to overpower the security it was complete chaos you have to look at this oh [Music] these pictures should scare beijing this is what dissent looks like these people are angry with the chinese government and its policies they're also angry about the state of the economy thousands of home buyers have boycotted their mortgages in china experts say the chinese economy is in a quote-unquote desperate situation even china central bank has admitted to the problem they admit that there's a crisis yesterday they cut interest rates to encourage more people to take loans you heard that right i'll put it in context in recent months reserve banks of over 40 countries have raised interest rates 40 countries why because they're trying to control inflation they want to restrict economic activities so they have raised interest rates to curtail borrowing but china is going in the opposite direction it wants people to borrow more money because china is already believed to be in a recession the chinese economy is shrinking the country's longest river the yangtze is also shrinking thanks to a drought in china oh one million people are affected they don't have water the jiangxi province is the worst hit 83 counties and 11 cities in this province desperately need water more than 140 000 hectares of crops have been damaged there is no water to irrigate these farms these are all problems that the chinese state is failing to solve so what do they do push a nationalistic cause to distract people and rally support the military escalation in taiwan is the perfect smokescreen the problem is military escalations are a tricky proposition sometimes they have unintended consequences like war we're going to shift to africa now a key election has ended in controversy and heartbreak in kenya the country voted for its next president last week after a lot of delay the winner was finally declared take a look at what happened next [Applause] officially the election was called for this man vice president william ruto it was a surprise for many ruto was seen as the underdog in this election he consistently trailed in the opinion polls but the official tally revealed a narrow victory for him he pulled fifty point zero five fifty point five percent of the votes his rival raila odinga secured 48.8 percent like i said a very narrow victory margin it shows just how polarized kenya is the ethnic divisions the religious divisions all of them were brought to the fore by this close contest william ruto's job is to heal those divisions the president-elect promised to be a leader for all i want to promise all the people of kenya whichever way they voted that this will be their government i know many are wondering especially [Music] those who have [Music] done many things against us i want to tell them that they have nothing to fear there is no room there is nothing there is no room for vengeance there is no room for looking back so william ruto wants to get on with it he wants to begin governing but things are not so straightforward in kenya such close elections inevitably raised questions about the polling was it done fairly was there any foul play by either camp and to make matters worse the election officials are split you see kenya's top poll body has seven members only three of them were present in the capital to declare the results the remaining four boycotted it we are not at bournemouth of kenya because we [Music] cannot take ownership of the results that is going to be announced because of the opaque nature which these results have been handled so the battle lines were drawn the only question was how this fight would unfold in the past two ken as elections have ended in controversy in 2007 and 2017 there was violence almost 1500 people were killed in the aftermath of the 2007 election so the most pressing priority is to avoid a repeat to resolve the matter peacefully but in some places the picture is worrying odinga supporters burnt tires in a nairobi neighborhood while in the city of kisumu they clashed with police officers tear gas was used to disperse them take a look at this [Applause] [Music] we know how these things work all it takes is one trigger happy cop or one fiery speech and this whole unrest could spiral into something more devastating a lot depends on how the leaders handle it raila odinga gave his first reaction earlier today he promised to pursue all legal means to challenge the result but suffice it to note that we will be expressing all constitutional and legal options available to us we will do so because we regard the many flaws in the elections and the wrongs committed by the ibc as fertile to the process and the outcome announced by mr bukhari what about election observers dozens of them were deployed across kenya what do they have to say about the results well most of them agree the polls are free and fair the results reflect their post-poll findings then what explains this backlash the sense of disbelief perhaps because of how william ruto won like i said he was the underdog the current president uhuru kenyatta had abandoned him called him untrustworthy this put two of kenya's biggest political dynasties against ruto the kenyattas and the odingas that's why the results surprised so many william ruto ended up sweeping kenya's political heartland do you know how with his striking backstory ruto grew up in abject poverty he walked barefoot to school he sold chicken by the roadside and he was 15 by the time he got his first pair of shoes today ruto is a big shot farmer perhaps the biggest in the country and most kenyans could relate to the story they looked up to ruto's success this is a country where 16 of the population lives in poverty where unemployment in the 18 to 34 age group is 40 ruto promised to change all of that he promised a bottom to top approach plus he's a great orator he compared himself to a hustler who could get things done and ruto is halfway there chances are the supreme court will now investigate the election if they're satisfied the results will stand william ruto will be the fifth president of kenya and frankly it's a tense moment not just for kenya but the whole continent you see kenya is an east african economic powerhouse so stability in kenya is key to peace in africa and within the country it is a test of maturity of the young democracy any country can transfer power after a landslide victory navigating such narrow results is the tricky part if kenya can do it seamlessly it would be a coming-of-age moment in africa for the moment we'll shift to a story from india indian football suffered a huge embarrassment today fifa has suspended the all india football federation this is the governing body for football in india there are serious consequences of this action indian players can no longer play on the international stage later this year india was also supposed to host a world cup event the under 17 women's world cup india could now lose the hosting rights so why has fifa taken such a drastic step it says the football body is under undue influence from third parties our next report explains indian footballers had a lot going for them the men's national team had qualified for the asia cup the women's under-17 team was looking forward to play before the home crowd in the world cup india was gearing up to host the event and leading football clubs were preparing to play in continental tournaments but the dreams of all these footballers have been dashed india's football governing body has been suspended by fifa the all india football federation or the aiff was under scrutiny for a while fifa was unhappy with the state of affairs in the body the federation has been without a precedent for several months a committee of administrators was overseeing aiff it was set up by the supreme court of india but the move went against fifa rules fifa rules dictate how football should be governed in a country according to fifa statutes federations must be free from legal and political interference the committee of administrators does not fit that criteria fifa views its involvement as third-party influence then why was it set up in the first place the trigger was the election of a president in december 2020 indian politician praful patel completed his tenure as president india's sports code mandates that no president can stay on the job for more than 12 years going by that rule patel should have left he had held the post for 12 years but patel didn't leave the election for the next president was derailed the matter went to the supreme court the verdict forced patel to quit the committee of administrators replaced him fifa slammed the move it gave the indian federation several months to put the house in order but aiff is yet to hold elections so fifa went through with the suspension orders india's former football captain by chung butya has made an appeal to indian officials it's very unfortunate that fifa is banned indian football and at the same time i feel it's a very harsh decision from fifa to bank indians but at the same time i think it's a great opportunity to get our system right and it's very important that all the stakeholders the federation state association sports ministry to come together get the system right and everybody work for betterment of england india's rights to host the under-17 women's world cup is now in jeopardy aiff needs to act fast if it still wants to host the tournament but the deeper impact will be on the players they cannot play in any fifa tournaments until the suspension is lifted the prestige of indian football is at stake officials now find themselves in a race against time i've said in this said this in the past and i can say it again today pakistan is not a country with an army it's an army with a country the military owns this country and it runs it like a family enterprise so when the head of this family steps down that is assuming that he will step down it makes news big news and that's the news from pakistan tonight a lot of buzz on who is going to replace the army chief the man in office right now lieutenant general kamar javed is expected to retire this time his tenure will end in the month of november and reports say he has no plans to extend it right from the inter-services public relations to top commanders in the pakistan army to general bajwa's inner circle they've all ruled out an extension this time they say bajwa is indeed retiring finally how long has he been the army chief six years in counting he took charge in november 2016 the appointment was for three years only but bajwa was given three more years in 2019 or he gave himself three more years imran khan pakistan's then prime minister extended bajwa's term in exchange for the military support bajwa returned the favor by helping the opposition throw him out of office this was in april this year three months on bajwa is at the peak of his power both domestically and internationally the civilian leadership is beholden to him openly he's also the face of islam both on the world stage the darling of pakistan's allies and frenemies alike in the last three months general bajwa has visited china he's been to saudi arabia the uae and he could next he could go to the united states next reports say american and pakistani officials are in talks to organize bajwa's visit to washington dc this comes barely weeks after bajwa dialed the state department seeking help in the early disbursement of funds from the imf pakistan is seeking their 23rd bailout any other army chief in the world does not make headlines for all of this they do not enjoy such privileges going on state visits alone of being conferred with state honors and having the prerogative of directly dialing the us state department to sort out affairs of the state general bajwa is a de facto ruler of pakistan at the moment and rulers in pakistan do not give up power easily so there's a big possibility of an extension if bajwa wants he can seek another tenure he's 61 years old the age limit for an army chief in pakistan is 64. general bajwa can push for another three-year term but suppose he does not who will replace him a lot of names are doing the rounds five of them stand out five five left and generals with the same experience as bajwa the first one is left in general asim munir the senior most among the lot right now he serves as the quarter master general of the pakistan army a position which looks after supplies for the army the second name is lieutenant general sahil shamshed mirza a three-star general he is currently the commander of rawalpindi corps the third name lieutenant general azer abbas the current chief of general staff previously he commanded the x corps an army wing which operates solely in pakistan occupied kashmir his experience in pok brought in fact has made him the front runner the fourth name is lieutenant general noman mahmoud a three-star general he's worked closely with foreign intelligence agencies including the cia during america's withdrawal from afghanistan right now he's the president of pakistan's national at the president of pakistan's national defense university the fifth and last name is of lieutenant general muhammad ahmed a close confidant of general bajwa and a former military secretary to the pakistani president his friendship with bajwa has made him a front runner for this top post so if general bajwa retires one of these five could be the next army chief of pakistan the appointment will be made by the current prime minister shaiba sharif reports say he will take a final decision by september or he'll be conveyed the final decision by september what will this decision be based on suggestions by the current army chief consultations with pakistan's president also with his older brother nawaz sharif you see pakistan has had had 10 army chiefs since 1972 all of them five were appointed by nawaz sharif every time he came to power in pakistan he named a new man as army chief none of the appointments worked out well for him in the end sharif was deposed in a coup by the army now his brother is in power and he has to pick a name we hope he chooses wisely for his own sake after all his political career may depend on this choice in track the story for you for the moment we talk about what's happening in canada what is making news in canada the future of hockey canada is in peril it's the governing body of canada's national sport ice hockey right now this body is mined in a sex scandal it faces accusations of hiding sexual assault lawsuits against its players what's worse these lawsuits were settled with money which players pay as registration fee here's a report ice hockey is canada's national sport the closest thing to religion outside the church each year it generates 11 billion dollars for the economy with 1 billion dollars in tourism revenue alone but a recent scandal has turned this game into the nation's shame seats at an ongoing championship are empty tv ratings have dropped abysmally there are calls for an all-out boycott in a country defined by ice hockey such developments are striking so what happened a sex scandal the governing body of the sport tried hiding a sexual assault case there are accusations of sexual abuse against its 2018 world junior team a lawsuit filed on april the 20th a woman said she was assaulted by eight members of the junior team she claimed to have been intoxicated by the players at a 2018 party hockey canada quickly settled the lawsuit by paying 3.5 million canadian dollars to her as for the players they were neither suspended nor were their names disclosed it's been three months the scandal is only getting bigger with more stunning revelations each day investigators say the money used to settle the lawsuit by hockey canada came from a fund financed by the registration fee of aspiring players this multi-million dollar reserve fund was used solely for escaping lawsuits since 1989 7.6 million dollars have been spent from this fund to settle over nine sexual assault cases the existence of such a fund raises more questions was membership fee alone used to settle lawsuits or was there more you see hockey canada is a state-funded body it gets six percent of its annual budget from ottawa it has received over 48 million dollars of taxpayer money in the last 10 years was this money also used to settle sexual assault lawsuits investigators are looking for answers the prime minister of canada isn't taking any chances he has already cut all federal funding to the body brands have also distanced themselves from the body they've pulled down ads and halted sponsorship deals as for the fans their faith in the sport has been shaken because this scandal is not about one player or one team it's about the culture in the system a culture of impunity where sexual assault victims are silenced with the money that aspirants pay to pursue their dreams with that it's a wrap we're leaving you with gravitas images thanks for watching [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] uh okay [Music] you

Channel: WION

Views: 497,480

Keywords: gravitas live with palki, gravitas, gravitas live, gravitas live with palki sharma, gravitas live tv, gravitas live now, gravitas live wion, gravitas live news, gravitas live today, gravitas live news today, gravitas live with palki sharma today, gravitas live with palki sharma upadhyay, gravitas wion, gravitas news, gravitas today, live, gravitas with palki sharma, gravitas news today, wion live, gravitas news today latest, wion live news, english news live, world news live

Id: qC0IaqsRZdg

Length: 47min 57sec (2877 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 16 2022